I've been keeping an eye half-open to the smartphone market now that I have the income to be able to afford one.

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The iPhone has been permanently removed from the list of contenders for my next phone purchase.

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( My thoughts )

Remember: Surveillance Also Used To Crush Political Dissent

Some highlights:

• FISA, originally passed in 1978 in response to Richard Nixon spying on political opponents, has been defanged and twisted into a Bizarro World version of itself by subsequent legislation
• In the last three years, the FISA court has rubber-stamped almost 5 000 government ( Read more... )

This is an interesting take on the evolution of the Democratic Party post-New Deal: recent American politics work like a ratchet. Although I think the money issue cited in the piece is a big factor in perpetuating the system, I disagree that it's the root cause.

A big chunk of the Democratic base defected to the Republican party following the ( Read more... )

On FB I follow I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists, which today shared a link to another excellent Krugman op-ed about how the American playing field is the least level of any developed nation, and how the people claiming the loudest that they are in favor of a meritocracy are doing the most to prevent leveling that field and even work to make it ( Read more... )

I recently stumbled on a 1959 Mike Wallace interview of Ayn Rand, supposedly her first television interview. Never have I felt a stronger impulse to shake another human being and scream "what is wrong with you?!"
( Part One )

via Electoral Vote: an AP article summarizes the current third-party situation. Third parties, of course, have a reputation for the "spoiler effect", where they attract enough voters that would have otherwise voted for the leader that an upset occurs. This requires a certain degree of ideological similarity to the leader, but with enough difference ( Read more... )

Way back when I first set up this blog - before I left Salt Lake, even - I made an entry defining Progressivism, its pillars, and its history.
( Read more... )

Just what does "progressive" mean? This is a fair question, especially since many (even on the Left) think that "progressive" and "liberal" are the same thing. Well, they're not, quite. In much the same way that Libertarianism is a subset of the political Right, Progressivism is a subset of the political Left.
( Epic post follows )